Abstract
This essay outlines the factors affecting food security such as food production and delineates innovative approach of vertical forming. The issue of food security bears relevance because of the unequal distribution of food in the world especially between the rich and the poor. The world produces sufficient food for its populace, and a lot of factors such as income, availability and so forth determine access to these foods. The word ‘food security’ has been coined to identify the impediments to food access and to help deal with them to ensure food availability. Many factors affect food security, and these include the world population, food production and food system, and so forth. The UN’s Zero Hunger Challenge’ has substantial supports due to ensuring adequate food for all throughout the year, sustainable food systems and zero loss of food. The innovative approach of vertical farming can facilitate in food production with minimal use of land. The vertical farming involves the production of food hydroponically or using artificial light as well as heat generated by the greenhouse gases. It also facilitates to grow crops with less water as well as minimum carbon footprints. The vertical farming involves a high initial cost for infrastructure, but it can provide optimal yield. Singapore has set the goals initiating in this field using modern technology. The UN believes that it is possible to attain the zero hunger goal, but this can only be done if the government, institutes, and organizations work simultaneously towards attaining this goal.
Food Security and Food Systems
Introduction
Food security issues are global challenges because it concerns virtually every nation of the world (Wilkinson, 2015). The world produces sufficient food, but over one billion people in the world do not have access to enough food today (UNEP, 2010). This makes food security a vital issue in the world. The existence of food security is linked to three components namely food availability, food access and stable utilization of food. Moreover, food production is crucial to food security, but basic supporting structures for this security are food systems and not just food production. This implies that absence of any component would put food security to threat (Bazgă, 2015; Hull, 2008; UNEP, 2010). This essay addresses the answer of two questions; firstly, what contribution does one think increasing the production of food would make to food security? Secondly, the contribution of vertical farming as a new innovative approach to food production.
Answer: Part-1
Food Production and Food Security
The relevance of food production is made obvious in the subject of food security. Food production is frequently considered as the backbone to food security. Of course, this is true but irrespective of the level and rate of improvement in food production, food security will not be improved without an improvement in the food system. This is so because the world produces enough food to meet the needs of the entire global population but despite this over 1 billion people in the world go to bed hungry (UNEP, 2010).
Apparently, the major barrier to food security is poverty. According to FAO (n.d), up to 1 billion people in the world today surviving in absolute poverty with incomes less than US$1 per day. Moreover, more than one child in four is underweight in the developing country as a result of chronic hunger, and most of the children are underweight in the poorest nations. This danger makes them vulnerable to diseases, and it is the principal cause of child deaths in these countries (Aiga, 2015; FAO,n.d). In addition, undernourishment is mostly prevalent in developing countries such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia as illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Percentile of populace undernourished during 1997-1999, Adapted from FAO (n.d)
Food security can be said to be in place if a family has real access to adequate food for their members and do not lose such access. This can only be achieved when the foods are not only available, but it should be affordable. Thus, food security can be increased in a number of ways namely:
Increasing the local food production and productivity.
Increasing the importation of food on a regular and assured basis.
Providing more jobs and increasing the incomes of people who are too poor to buy the food they need.
Improving the systems of food distribution. (FAO, n.d).
These approaches are analogs with the food system approach pointed out by UNEP (2010). Food system also includes activities such as food production, food processing, and packaging, food distribution and retailing and food consumption. These are well illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Scenario of food system activities Adapted from UNEP (2010)
However, the vitality of food production to food security cannot be overemphasized. Food self-sufficiency can only be achieved via domestic supplies, and this measure is often employed as a common national policy objective. This is because it makes possible to save foreign exchange for the purchase of other commodities that may not be produced locally. Food security can also be linked to the production of certain foods which are consumed in most parts of the world (Richards, Kjærnes & Vik, 2016). For instance, 90% of rice is consumed in Asia and thus ensuring enough, and affordable rice would imply food security (IRRI, n.d).
Malnutrition and food security
Food security is frequently defined in terms of availability and access to food (Richards et al., 2016). However, the quality and nutrients of the food is also considered as an important factor for food security (CIDA, 2010). Food security cannot be said to be complete if low quality and non-nutritious foods are made available. In addition, food security is recognized as providing people with enough calories to live on and also ensuring that they have enough nutrients for optimal health. This will include the production of healthier food varieties for the populace.
According to Cargill (2014), food production is vital for food security that can be enhanced by honoring comparative advantage by growing crops well suitable to local conditions and also enabling open markets, ensuring and encouraging cooperation between private and public sectors, supporting smallholder farmers, reforming biofuel mandates and synchronizing the standards of food safety and also encouraging investment. The best bait in ensuring food security is to focus on long-term solutions that would ensure sustainability. However, if this solution is to be followed, then it would be necessary to provide adequate aids in case of emergency food shortages.
The discussion on food production cannot be completed without talking about agriculture. African agriculture is vitally important in the subject of food safety (Smart, Nel & Binns, 2015). According to Cargill (2014), African agriculture would have to be improved especially to cater for the growing world population. This is because up to 60% of the world’s potential cropland is in Africa and the environment is also conducive for agricultural production. However, irrespective of this amazing agricultural potential domicile in Africa, the continent has the lowest agricultural productivity in the world and imports much of its foods to cater for the needs of its growing populace. To increase food security in Africa as well as in other parts of the world, it would be imperative to narrow the productivity gap by supporting smallholder farmers and making use of suitable lands for agricultural production.
The Zero Hunger Challenge
Hunger stands as the major issue across the globe (Aiga, 2015) but lots of people in the international community believe that hunger can be eradicated. Hence, it has become imperative now than ever to practice sustainable agriculture owing to the increasing world population. Sustainable agricultural would ensure an increase in agricultural production by improvement in the global supply chain, decrease loss and waste of food and also ensuring everyone suffering from malnutrition and hunger have access to nutritious food. In the 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20), World leaders reasserted the right of everyone to have access to food and be free from hunger. During the Rio +20, the UN Secretary-General launched the Zero Hunger Challenge in which he beaconed on the government, private sector, research institutes and so forth to work together in order to put an end to hunger and malnutrition. The Zero Hunger Challenge, which has earned substantial supports, focuses on ensuring 100% adequate food throughout the year, zero stunted children under the age of two, sustainable food systems, and 100% increase in the income and productivity of smallholders and zero loss or a waste of food. These goals are to be achieved by supporting sustainable agriculture, promoting gender equality, empowering small farmers, putting an end to poverty in the rural areas, handling climatic change issues, ensuring healthy lifestyles and so forth (United Nations, n.d).
Conclusion
In conclusion, would the poorest in the world continue to go hungry whereas the global food production is more than sufficient to feed the world? The answer to this depends on how we deal with food security issues. Food is a fundamental need to living organisms, and humans are not exempted. The food system is obviously one of the most important factors to consider in dealing with food security issues. A clear challenge is maintaining and increasing food production sustainably. Sustainable agricultural practices are surely the best way in the twenty-first century with improved technology and devices.
Answer: Part-2
Vertical Farming
Vertical farming stands as one of the most promising ways to address the issue of food insecurity. The changing climate coupled with the increasing urban population have necessitated an effective and sustainable urban agricultural technique that would go a long way in addressing food insecurity issues, and vertical farming is obviously one sure way to achieve it (Despommier, 2013; Marks, 2014). The concept of vertical farming simply involves the production of food hydroponically or aeroponically in an environment lit with artificial light or in heated greenhouses in a high-rise building. According to Banerjee & Adenaeuer (2014), vertical farming is a system of commercial farming in which plants, animals, and other life forms are cultivated for food, fuel, or other products or services by artificially putting them vertically above one another (Griffiths, 2014).
The vertical farming offers enormous advantages irrespective of huge investment (Johnson, 2015). For instance, it makes it possible to grow crops and produce foods with less water because the water recirculates. Moreover, vertical farming creates less waste and takes up less space than traditional farming and the carbon footprints (Chow, 2015). Vertical farming is very promising because it can provide high quality and locally produced food to the urban population. Simultaneously, it minimizes the use of water and chemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. This urban agricultural technique is becoming increasingly important as the world tends towards the 9 billion mark and the world will require 60% more food by 2050 (Al-Chalabi, 2015; Griffiths, 2014). The problem is due to the shortage of arable lands to produce these foods and also excessive cultivation and agricultural activities on farm lands is causing a lot of environmental degradation and climatic change (Sabiha et al., 2016). There is indeed a global outcry for sustainable agriculture to save the planet. Hence vertical farming is really essential to support the world population. The relevance of this innovative farming is particularly underscored by the need to minimize the use of land for growing crops and also avoid crop wastage. Moreover, the vertical farming process is done in a controlled environment, and this makes it easy to control or regulate key variables in the growing process such as temperature, humidity, light intensity and so forth and enhance the crop cycle (Griffiths, 2014).
Although the vertical farm is still largely conceptual, several projects on vertical farming are already available. These projects show the huge potential of this system of urban agriculture. For instance, Singapore is an archipelago country with a fast growing population. It has limited land for agriculture because most of its lands are highly developed and expensive. In fact, only 8% of the requirement is locally produced, and the rest is imported from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and so forth (Griffiths, 2014). Consequently, the use of imported products in Singapore adds a lot of carbon footprint to the environment. Moreover, there is a high demand for fresh foods and locally grown vegetables in Singapore besides food security is a very critical issue in the country. This has necessitated an effective urban agricultural system such as vertical farming in Singapore. The innovative solution developed by Jack Ng. known as Sky Greens, which employs A-frame tower technology brings in vertical farming and resultantly, it produces up to ten times higher yield than traditional farming in a given area of land. Further developments in vertical farming have been recorded in Singapore such as the world’s first vertical vegetable farm was developed and started producing commercially in 2012. Vegetables from this farm (Figure 3) are harvested daily and delivered to consumers and retail outlets (Griffiths, 2014).
Figure 3: Innovative farm of Singapore for vegetable Adapted from Griffiths, (2014)
Japan is also another region of the world where vertical farming technology has been implemented. Warehouse using artificial lighting such as LED lighting for growing crops. In Chicago, warehouse growing techniques are also used in crop production (Griffiths, 2014). Jackson, Wyoming vertical farm (Figure 4) is also a good example of a top notch vertical farm. It is a three-story hydroponic greenhouse situated on a 30 foot by 150-foot plot of land. The farm has the capacity of producing 37,000 pounds of greens, 4,400 pounds of herbs and 44,000 pounds of tomatoes (Chow, 2015). Al-Chalabi (2015) developed a reliable model for vertical farming based on socio-technical method. He also reported that the sufficient energy can be produced to meet the requirement of a building over entire month for vertical farming as presented in Table 1
Figure 4 Jackson, Wyoming vertical farm. Adapted from Chow (2015)
Conclusion
Vertical farming is truly an innovative approach to food production that addresses the issue of land availability by serving as an effective urban farming technique. This is critically essential owing to the increasing urban population in the world. With vertical farming, the UN zero hunger challenge can be achieved. However, this system of farming is truly capital intensive as it requires high initial capital investment. The existing vertical farms mentioned such as the Jackson Wyoming vertical farm, the Sky Green vertical farm and so forth shows that vertical farming is not just conceptual, it can be actualized.
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